The value of an office supply tracking system depends on the size of your business and your budget for office supplies. But even a small office can benefit from keeping track of office supplies in an orderly fashion. Whether done using a spreadsheet or through dedicated hardware and software solutions, supply tracking can save you money and help prevent emergencies.

Office Supply Tracking

Normally, companies allocate dedicated storage space for office supplies. At its simplest, the space is an office or supply cabinet. Supply tracking requires you to inventory your supplies frequently and keep records of what materials you have on hand or on order. Small businesses can accomplish this with written or electronic spreadsheets. A step up is the use of a portable bar code reader to record current stock levels and transmit the information to software systems. These systems might be dedicated to office supply tracking or might integrate with your accounting software. Companies usually assign one or more people to be responsible for managing office supplies.

Cost Savings

Supply tracking can save you money by helping you to prevent over-ordering and to control shrinkage. Undisciplined companies that don’t track supplies often buy more supplies than they need because they don’t want to run out. Over-ordering supplies eats into a company’s working capital and ties up cash that might be better used elsewhere. Having too many supplies on hand takes up additional storage space and might tempt employees who know that the business doesn't track supplies. According to a 2006 Harris Interactive poll, 58 percent of office workers admit to stealing office supplies. Over-ordering also creates unnecessary additional costs related to purchasing, shipping and unpacking. When integrated with your purchasing system, supply tracking can help you uncover problems with particular vendors, such as short or delayed shipments.

Opportunity Costs

A business that doesn't track its office supplies is vulnerable to stock-outs. A shortage of paper clips might not be so bad, but suppose you run out of printer cartridges in the middle of preparing time-sensitive documents, such as sales proposals. The wasted time involved in running to the store -- assuming your business is near an open store -- is an opportunity cost. A larger opportunity cost occurs if you miss a deadline because you ran short of critical supplies. For example, if you must submit a printed bid for a competitive contract, the lack of printer ink or the proper paper might prevent last-minute changes, possibly undermining your success. Supply tracking can save these opportunity costs by helping you ensure that you don’t run out of critical supplies.

Economies of Scale

By knowing your rates of supply utilization, you can predict your purchasing needs and use this information to place bulk orders. The cost of having a large amount of certain supplies on hand might be offset by sales discounts and reduced or free shipping charges for large bulk orders. You might even join with other local businesses and form a buying group to increase your purchase volume and the resulting discounts. Only by tracking office supplies and knowing your utilization requirements can you ensure that large orders make economic sense.

Discipline

An intangible but real benefit of supply tracking is the message it sends: The business is cost-conscious and disciplined. Haphazard management of office supplies might be symptomatic of far more serious problems within an organization. It’s hard to encourage efficiency among your workers without setting the example of efficient office supply management. If you are dedicated to employing “best practices” in all aspects of your business, your office supply tracking procedures will reflect this dedication and provide an object lesson to your staff regarding your management philosophy.